Last in Parliament October 2015, as IndependentMP for Ahuntsic (Québec)

Statements in the House

Mr. Speaker, on May 15, the Prime Minister announced an infrastructure program to mark Canada's 150th anniversary and invited all municipalities to participate. Municipalities in Quebec, including Ahuntsic-Cartierville, will be excluded from the program even though Quebec's Minister of Municipal Affairs submitted a memorandum of understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify that I asked the Minister of Public Safety to investigate Alpine Canada and the RCMP, not Mr. Charest. We know that he is already in court.

What we and the victims want to know is why there does not seem to have been an RCMP investigation 15 years ago resulting in charges and convictions and why it is happening now. Why did Alpine Canada and the RCMP fail in their role and their duty to protect the young people they were responsible for? That is what we want: an investigation into Alpine Canada and the RCMP, not Mr. Charest.

When the minister tells me that he does not want to investigate Alpine Canada or the RCMP, what I hear is that he is not interested in finding out what the problem was. That means there could well be pedophiles in similar organizations and other international, Olympic or professional sports organizations. Those guys are still assaulting kids.

We want to find a solution to the problem, while the Conservatives seem to want to do nothing, which is too bad. This really goes to show that the Conservatives do not care about the victims.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today to the question that I asked the Minister of Public Safety about the actions of Alpine Canada and the RCMP in the Bertrand Charest case.

I will briefly outline the case. Mr. Charest coached Alpine Canada's women's development team between 1996 and 1998. The incidents occurred at least 15 years ago. Apparently, Alpine Canada was informed of allegations of sexual misconduct at the time. Alpine Canada suspended Mr. Charest, who subsequently resigned.

We have learned that Alpine Canada then transferred the file to the RCMP. The organization is said to have informed the RCMP of the allegations and even collaborated with the RCMP. However, Alpine Canada says that it is not aware of the results of the RCMP investigation. We have also learned that, at the time, Alpine Canada allegedly asked parents not to go to the police, to let the organization handle it and, above all, to think of the sponsors. Can you believe it. That is some kind of protection for the young women they were responsible for.

One has to wonder whether Alpine Canada took any action after firing Mr. Charest. Did it take measures to ensure that he could no longer coach? All I have to say is that I do not think that Alpine Canada took any such measures, because about 15 years later, one of the victims saw him working as a coach at a ski hill.

Of course, that victim must have been horrified to see that he was still a coach. She pressed criminal charges against him for an assault that occurred 15 years ago. These incidents occurred in Mont-Tremblant, Europe and Calgary and there were a number of victims. In March 2015, the first charge was laid against Mr. Charest. For what? For the sexual assault of a minor. On May 22, we learned that there had been another victim. There were at least 12 victims. In 2015, 12 victims suddenly came forward. Mr. Charest is facing 57 charges of sexual assault involving minors between the ages of 12 and 18 who were in his care.

Here is the big question: What happened when Alpine Canada gave Mr. Charest's name to the RCMP? Did the RCMP question the victims? Was there an investigation? If there was an investigation, why were there no charges 15 years ago but there are charges now? Fifty-seven charges is not nothing.

In order to shed light on this matter, I asked the Minister of Public Safety to order an administrative investigation of Alpine Canada to find out what happened, and also to order an investigation of the RCMP, to find out why no charges were laid 15 years ago and why it started laying charges in March 2015 against this man, who was still a coach in a ski organization. He was still coaching young kids. I look forward to my colleague's response to this.